Kellyanne Conway's husband slams Trump's Twitter habits

A close ally of President Trump and the husband of one of his top advisers took to Twitter to bash the President's Twitter habits on Monday, warning that Trump was undercutting his own legal standing in the court fight for his travel ban in order for short-term emotional gratification.

George Conway, Kellyanne Conway's husband who recently took his name out of the running for a top Department of Justice job, tweeted Monday morning that Trump was hurting himself.

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"These tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly won't help OSG get 5 votes in SCOTUS, which is what actually matters. Sad," Conway tweeted, retweeting Trump's early Monday morning tweet that "The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C."

These tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly won't help OSG get 5 votes in SCOTUS, which is what actually matters. Sad. https://t.co/zVhcyfm8Hr

Conway confirmed the Twitter account and tweet were his, though he didn't further elaborate about his frustrations in an email to the Daily News.

That comment is remarkable coming from so close to the White House's inner circle — especially since Conway, a top attorney, was until recently expected to take a job leading the Justice Department's civil division. That position would have put Conway in charge of defending Trump against all lawsuits against the administration. That includes the travel ban that Conway warns Trump is undercutting his own actions.

While Conway said in a statement that he'd decided against taking the job because it "wasn't the right time" to leave the private sector, this tweet suggests that Trump's impulsive, self-destructive behavior played a role in Conway's decision not to take the job. Senior administration officials from across the government have been quietly frustrated at Trump's lack of message discipline and routine sabotage of their own efforts with his offhand tweets and comments.

Donald Trump in the White House

The remark also stands in stark contrast to what his own wife said Monday morning.

Kellyanne Conway defended Trump on NBC's "Today" show by arguing slamming the media's "obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as President."

Mr. Conway said he stood by both his wife and his President later on Monday, while arguing that he was simply trying to publicly convince Trump to stop shooting himself in the foot.

"Just to be clear, and in response to inquiries, I still VERY, VERY STRONGLY support POTUS, his Admin, policies, the executive order, and of course, my wonderful wife. Which is why I said what I said this morning. Every sensible lawyer in WHCO and every political appointee at DOJ wd agree with me (as some have already told me)," he said in a series of tweets. "The pt cannot be stressed enough that tweets on legal matters seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS--and those who support him, as I do, need to reinforce that pt and not be shy about it."

Mr. Conway is not a fan of the President’s Twitter habits. (JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed Conway's concerns Monday while breezing by questions about why Trump had decided to use the term "travel ban" after White House staff had assiduously avoided using the term after its rollout — and why he'd decided to sign the updated ban if he didn't like it.

"I don't think the President cares what you call it … He cares that we call it national security," she said at a White House briefing Monday afternoon. "Everyone wants to get into the labels and the semantics of it but the bottom line is he wants to protect the people of this country."

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Trump's ban on refugees and travelers from a half-dozen Muslim-majority countries has been stymied in the courts, as has a revised version to do the same. Many legal experts have warned that Trump has repeatedly undercut his own Justice Department's ability to argue the ban is not discriminatory with his public statements and tweets, which have been cited in lower court decisions. But for Conway to criticize Trump so publicly and overtly is a sign of how dire things are becoming in the White House.